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To what extent, and in what ways, has globalization transformed the media and its audiences? Increased prominence of economic, cultural and technological integration between countries has no doubt had an impact on our (society’s) personal lives. Significantly, globalization has also led to increased access to a broad range of media – entertainment, increased interest in world news and larger access to communication technologies. By the world becoming more and more incorporated, it is developing faster and faster – especially in relation to the production, and distribution of media.
It has been claimed by critics that “the United States is far too powerful and that it exercises cultural imperialism over smaller nations by overwhelming them with movies and television programs produced in the United States” (McChesney, 2005). Nowadays, a lot of media groups are owned by non-US companies – but influence works both ways. Whilst non-US media groups have opportunity to influence a huge range of audiences, they themselves are subject to other country’s media, and have perhaps been affected by the increased exposure to these. Take, for example, the popularity of many of America’s sitcoms; “Friends”, and “Fraiser” are now a regular part of UK television. On the other hand, American audiences have been subject to other material that they previously had not seen; for example, Pokemon, the children phenomenon from Japan and even Bollywood film. The argument here is that, due to globalization, the audiences within countries have changed; migration, increased access to traveling, has caused each country to have to cater for a variety of cultures. The diversity within media in developed countries is now so great, and is still evolving as more and more people settle in countries foreign to their culture.
Entertainment within media has also been swayed by globalization as audiences have gained access to a large range of content; television, cinema and print in